(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a map information updating apparatus which updates map information which has been stored within the apparatus itself, and particularly to a map information updating apparatus which updates map information by receiving plural different types of update map information.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the updating of map information which has been stored in car navigation systems and the like via communication networks and recording media becomes possible, and is being implemented. By updating the map information, without newly purchasing a car navigation system itself, the user can obtain latest information, such as information in which a new road has been added. On the other hand, map information is made up of a large volume of data. Since the cost for communicating such map information is quite high, a technique which partially updates a map has been suggested (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-121371, which is referred to as Patent Reference 1 hereinafter).
FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of an apparatus disclosed in Patent Reference 1. A vehicle position detecting unit 18 detects a position of a vehicle and stores it as a history of the position in a storage device 20. In order to update only an area map with the histories of the positions, a use range storage processing unit 26 calculates an update map, a sending/receiving unit 24 obtains the update map, and a map update processing unit 22 performs update processing with the update map. With this, only the area map with the histories is updated, and thus, the communication cost is reduced.
However, the apparatus disclosed in Patent Reference 1 partially updates map information, and it is assumed that only a single type of map is provided for the apparatus. Thus, when there are plural maps to be provided for the apparatus, such maps can be no longer applied.
In other words, from now on, with expansion of services which provide map information, the type of map information to be provided is not limited to a single map information type, and it is necessary to select update map information from among plural different types of map information to be provided so as to update map information using the selected map information, depending on uses and preferences of the user.
Thus, the object of the present invention is to provide a map information updating apparatus and the like which can automatically select optimal map information for the user from among plural map information and update map information with the selected map information, based on the information obtained from the movement histories of the user.